Nina Kaufmann

In the diet culture, exercise and movement are usually viewed as a punishment; the way to control your size, “make up” for what you ate, or deserve your next meal. Also, it often gets pushed with harmful messages like “no pain, no gain.”
Naturally, this approach to movement can leave you feeling drained, dreading the next workout session.

But what if you changed your perspective and focused on the ways to move your body that feel good, energizing and fulfilling?
That’s exactly what joyful movement is all about!

When you focus on what brings you joy, moving your body becomes something you look forward to rather than something you dread.
Today, I’d like to share some simple but powerful tips to help you move consistently, in ways that fit your lifestyle, and are fun.

1. Redefine Exercise

As a part of diet culture, exercise is usually constricted to gym and strict, structured workouts. However, movement can come in many forms – walking, dancing, gardening, swimming, playing with your pets outside or even just stretching while watching TV.

Instead of focusing on rigorous gym workouts as your only source of exercise, redefine what exercise is to you. This shift will allow you to experiment with many different forms of fun movement; and often, it will allow you to nurture your inner child. Who says jumping in the puddles in your wellies isn’t exercise?

2. Find Fun Activities You Enjoy

When I work with the clients on healing their relationship with exercise, I often ask them to think about all the ways they loved moving as children. Often, these sessions are one of my favorites – it brings me a lot of joy to witness them dive into nostalgia, sharing their precious memories! This is always a fun place to start, and will inevitably give you some wonderful ideas.

Maybe you loved jumping on the trampoline – I know I did (and do), or you enjoyed riding a bike to the beach. Maybe playing volleyball was your thing.
Perhaps, you always wanted to try horse riding or ballet, but you were unable to – now is the time!

3. Include Movement Into Your Daily Life

Living an active lifestyle doesn’t require you to carve out an hour or two every day for the gym (unless that brings you joy.)
It can also mean adding more movement into your everyday life:

• Have dance parties around the house.
• Park your car down the street instead of right in front of the house.
• Use the stairs.
• Take a break from work every 20 minutes and stretch or do a few jumping jacks.
• Instead of meeting your friend in a coffee shop, go for a walk with them.
• Have a zoom meeting while walking through the park.

All of these little things add up, creating an active lifestyle, helping you move consistently.

4. Reject the ‘All or Nothing’ Mindset

It doesn’t help with food, and it doesn’t help with exercise. My clients often experience “all or nothing” mindset when it comes to the workouts, thinking that if they cannot spend an hour working out “properly,” it’s just not worth the trouble.
Of course, this isn’t a helpful perspective; if you’re having a busy day, or are tired after a long day at work, squeezing in an hour long workout might feel like too much. However, going for a brisk walk around the block, or doing some yoga while listening to a fun podcast is totally doable, and still beneficial!

We simply need to reject this idea that only long, difficult workouts are “real” – all movement counts!

5. Respect Your Body

Energy levels and the phases we go through in life can change. Some days you’ll be bursting with energy, and will feel like you can conquer the world – high intensity workouts will feel amazing during these times.
Other days, you’ll only be capable of staying in bed. That’s perfectly fine!

Let go of the rigid expectations and honor what your body needs. Besides, slow days are also important, which brings me to my next point:

6. Rest Is As Important As Movement

I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it thousand times more: everything in nature rests, and so should you.

Unfortunately, living in the current society has been teaching us we must always “hustle,” do more, achieve more, move, move, move! Then we burn out, and end up feeling like a failure.

Apples don’t produce all year round, bears spend months chilling and sleeping.. Why should you hustle and produce every day?

Overexercising and forcing yourself to move when your body obviously needs rest can lead to burnout and resentment. And it’s extremely difficult to enjoy working out, and to stay consistent if your cup is empty.

So please, give yourself grace and rest without guilt!

7. Get Some Cute Gym Clothes

It might just be me, but I feel million times better doing anything in life when dressed in cute, comfortable clothes. If the clothes happen to be my princess dresses (why yes, I do have them in multiple colors), even better!
Pretty clothes just bring me so much joy and boost my motivation to do anything, including exercise.

If you’re going to the gym, or to a pilates class, gift yourself a cute leggings, or a set (like my favorite leggings, with this gorgeous bra) that’s comfortable and makes you feel good.
If you prefer nature walks, have clothes that will keep you warm, dry and cute; a good jacket, comfortable sneakers or warm boots, and, if necessary, thermal underwear.
If you’re a gardener, make sure your clothes are appropriate.
If you live in a city and your walking options are limited, you can still walk through the center in your cool, fashionable clothes.

8. Set Joyful Movement Appropriate Goals

In the dieting world, our exercise goals mostly come down to weight loss or “burning fat.” Dreadful.

With joyful movement, however, you can shift your focus to the goals that feel good, and are meaningful to you.

Some ideas might include:

• Improving your flexibility so you can finally do splits
• Being able to easily do your favorite hiking trail
• Learning a new skill, like ballet or playing tennis
• Building endurance to be able to play with your children longer

9. Surround Youself With Positive Influences

Try creating an environment that’s as supportive as possible.

Perhaps you have a friend who also always wanted to try tennis, and you can go train together, laugh at how bad you are (you’re allowed to be bad at things you’re trying!)
Maybe you have a fun group of friends who all want to try badminton -I’ve done this with my friends and had the best time! None of us were particularly good, but we still loved it.

And, since we all spend a lot of time online, it’s worth decluttering your online space too. Unfollow accounts that make you feel like you’re not doing enough, or promote harmful messages like “no pain no gain.” Instead, follow body neutral, diverse accounts that help you settle into soft, gentle approach to moving your body.
Consider joining supportive online communities too – everything is easier with other people who are on the same journey!

Obviously, you can also always choose to work with me – I happen to be an incredibly supportive and positive influence who will be with you every step of the journey 🙂

Or, you can start your joyful movement journey by joining my free course:

10. Reconnect with the Joy of Movement

Stay mindful when thinking about movement and exercise. It would be a wonderful idea to journal about the tips you’ve seen in this article and reflect on the ways in which you can make movement in your life feel good.

• Consider what kinds of movement you think are fun?
• What’s some form of movement you’ve always wanted to try?
• When do you feel most connected to your body?
• What kinds of movement feel more like play, less like “a must?”

The healthiest form of movement is the one that makes you feel good!

Conclusion

The best, easiest way to stay consistent when it comes to moving is enjoying movement. Obviously, when you enjoy doing something, you’ll always want to do more of it.

If you want to create a sustainable movement routine that works for you, I’d love to support you! In my Intuitive Eating Coaching, we will talk a lot about movement, shifting your perspective and creating an active lifestyle that fits you.

Take the first step toward food freedom—my coaching packages start at only 97€. Click here to learn more!

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